The text begins with the verse tapassvadhyaya, and ends with tad brahmapy anvamanyata. It contains twentyfour thousand verses.
It consists of five hundred cantos and seven Kandas. The expression tathottaram consists of two words tatha and uttaram the latter stands for the Uttarakanda. The former contains three words, viz. ‘ta’, ‘tha’, and ‘a’. The word ta denotes the sky. According to astrology, it is expressive of the number ‘zero’. Tha means mountain. Thus the feminine form tha related to the earth which implies the number ‘one’. On the strength of the Shruti, the word ‘a’ conveys the idea of Atman. The Shruti says, “One God in his invisible form pervades the whole creation”. Thus the word ‘a’ expresses number ‘one’. Again, on the basis of a maxim, the figures are counted from the left, i.e. in reverse order. Ultimately, tatha stands for the figure one hundred and ten. Finally, tathottaram means Uttarakanda consisting of one hundred and ten cantos.
Here the special mention of Uttarakanda suggests its distinct nature. It depicts the posterior life of Raghunatha, while the remaining Kandas speak of his life in the past and the present time. According to Kataka, the author of the commentary Tilaka, quoted by Bhatta, the present verse is spurious. It does not belong to the seer. The view is based on the fact that apart from the figure of the cantos, additional thirty-six are found. Secondly, one finds the number of verses being more than those mentioned by the poet. Lastly, the poet does not mention the number of the cantos in the Uttarakanda.
Criticizing this view Sivasahaya (our commentator) states that this argument is based on false reasoning. With reference to the number of the cantos in the Uttarakanda, a citation from the said Kanda makes it clear that it comprises one hundred ten cantos: ‘The seer composed six Kandas along with the Uttarakanda consisting of 110 cantos (7 .94 .27)’.
Here, in the expression sottarani, the word ‘so’ comprises three word ‘sa’, ‘o’, and ‘o’. ‘sa’ meaning etymologically ‘procreator of wind’, which referring to the sky, stands for the number ‘zero’. The word ‘o’ signifies Vasudeva that gives the number ‘one’. The word ‘o’, again, referring to the same expresses number ‘one’. In the manner of reckoning the numbers from the left, the word ‘so’ formed by the compound dvanda, produces the figure ‘one hundred ten’.
Thus we may say that Valmiki composed the Ramacarita consisting of seven Kandas among which the Uttarakanda contains one hundred cantos. It should be noted here that the word sa basically means wind. However, it refers to the sky.
Musical recital of Ramayana 1.4.8-13
In this verse, the poet describes the musical recital of the epic. Kusa and Lava sang it. The Kavya was sweet in recitation and musica. Some kavyas are pleasant to recite, while others are melodious to sing. The Ramayana is excellent with regard to both. It is imbued with five sentiments such as Srngara, Vira, Karuna, and Bhayanaka and includes four others such as Raudra, Bibhatsa, Adbhuta, and Santa. It is set in three types of rhythm, viz. druta ‘quick’, madhyama ‘moderate’, and vilambita ‘slow’. Further, it is composed in seven svaras or notes.According to the scriptures, the notes form their own class (jati), and constitute the base of all songs. To Sandilya, they are kharja, nishada, dhaivata, pancama, madhyama, gandhara, and rsabha.
The Ramayana accompanied by tantri and laya. Here tanri denotes a stringed instrument called vina, while laya implies tala, venu, mrdanga and others. They are played rhythmically, i.e. with equal musical time between the beats.Kusa and Lava were experts in music. They were well-versed in the science of music expounded by the gandharvas. According to the lexicon Vaijayanti, gandharvasastra itself is called the science of songs. The singers showed great skill in murcchana and sthana. The same lexicon says that the word murcchana stands for the playing of vina and other instruments. The term sthana refers to the place or the organ of articulation of the svara or note, which has three kinds of intonation, viz. mandra ‘low’, madhyama ‘middle’, and tara ‘high or pitch’. According to Sandilya, Sthana denotes the place located above the chest and below the cheeks through which the breath passes for the articulation of gamut. It is of three kinds, viz. uras ‘chest’, Kantha ‘throat’, and moorhen ‘the top of palate’. Here three notes mentioned above arise. Sandilya further states that it is called merchant when the svaras with complete modulation are articulated in the places mentioned.
Thus the brothers, born of the same mother, were proficient in melodious presentation of the gamut comprising the svaras.They were in human form as if they were gandharvas. They were conversant with dramatic representation. Sharp in conversation with sweet intonation, they looked as if they were just the reflection that arose from the lovely image of Rama. In other words, they resembled the reflection of the handsome image of Rama. To say it in brief, they were identified with Rama. They performed the musical recital of the Ramayana.
In the verse, (1 .4 .10) the reading ‘sthana-murcchana-kovidou’ is acceptable to Bhatta. Kusa and Lava were identified by the auspicious astrological signs they had on their bodies. Endowed with boundless fortune, they commanded the respect of all. With their minds concentrated, they understood the total essence of the Vedas and the scriptures. They attained perfection in musical art. It was considered worthy of relish, like nectar, by the aesthetes. The two sons of the king sang the kavya in the manner they were instructed.
Further, the Ramayana depicting Rama’s life was divine poetry which flowed from the gifted speech of Valmiki, the Adikavi, i.e. the first poet of the world. Righteous in spirit and faithful to dharma, it assigned duties and rites for all. Kusa and Lava recited it with no text in their hands. They performed its recital before the assembly of the wise Vedic seers, the brahmanas in general, the kshatriyas, and vaisyas. The highest ascetics who showed no regard to differences of castes and others also attended the conference.
The Medinikosa mentions ‘ta’ in the sense of ‘nectar’. In this context, it means ‘full of nectar’.
Seers bless Lava and Kusa 1.4.25-26
On the occasion of the recital of the Ramayana the great seers, highly pleased, blessed Kusa and Lava with longevity of life. They felt that the Ramayana was their supreme achievement. The verses 21-25 beginning with anyah krsnajinam to dadus caivam are not found in the text with the commentary by Bhusana. However, they are attested in other editions and fit into the context. The commentator might have overlooked them. The Ramayana is wonderful, since it propagates the substance inaccessible to mind and thought. Further, the spontaneous revelation of madhurya-guna is self-evident. Its thematic structure, by its very nature, is quite distinct from all plots. Being in the form of prabandha, that is, the epic, it is a source of later poetry for poets and aesthetes. It fascinates readers. It ends up with its recital by Kusa and Lava.
Charm of Ramayana 1.4.35-36
The words bhutikaram, mahanubhavam, etc may mean: ‘The boys will speak out my life, which will bring prosperity and inspiration to the listeners’. The maxim says one should not listen to one’s own merit, how is it that Rama listens to the Ramayana, asks Bhatta and then clears his own doubt. The Ramayana after all deals with Sita’s exhaustive life (1 .4 .7).But the word Mahat or exhaustive refers to Ramayana and not to Sita, observes Siromanikara. This epic intends to rid a man of his egotism. Rama was not an egoist like a common man. So the maxim does hold well in his case. The hero of the Ramayana is Rama himself.It is Ramacharita per se.
Kusa and Lava sang the kavya in slow motion with perfect intonation. The treatise on music prescribes two modes of singing, viz. desi and marga. The desi mode is used for singing praakrita songs, while the marga mode is fit for singing Sankrit songs, Equipped with the initial preparatory requisites of the marga mode, they presented the musical Ramayana to the audience.
Seated in the assembly with members around, Rama was deeply absorbed in the musical recital. Here the particle tu denotes eva which implies that Rama was completely oblivious of his duties. Or, the particle conveys the idea that Rama applauded at the end of each verse.
Number of slokas and sargas in the Ramayana 1.4.2
The text begins with the verse tapassvadhyaya, and ends with tad brahmapy anvamanyata. It contains twentyfour thousand verses.
It consists of five hundred cantos and seven Kandas. The expression tathottaram consists of two words tatha and uttaram the latter stands for the Uttarakanda. The former contains three words, viz. ‘ta’, ‘tha’, and ‘a’. The word ta denotes the sky. According to astrology, it is expressive of the number ‘zero’. Tha means mountain. Thus the feminine form tha related to the earth which implies the number ‘one’. On the strength of the Shruti, the word ‘a’ conveys the idea of Atman. The Shruti says, “One God in his invisible form pervades the whole creation”. Thus the word ‘a’ expresses number ‘one’. Again, on the basis of a maxim, the figures are counted from the left, i.e. in reverse order. Ultimately, tatha stands for the figure one hundred and ten. Finally, tathottaram means Uttarakanda consisting of one hundred and ten cantos.
Here the special mention of Uttarakanda suggests its distinct nature. It depicts the posterior life of Raghunatha, while the remaining Kandas speak of his life in the past and the present time. According to Kataka, the author of the commentary Tilaka, quoted by Bhatta, the present verse is spurious. It does not belong to the seer. The view is based on the fact that apart from the figure of the cantos, additional thirty-six are found. Secondly, one finds the number of verses being more than those mentioned by the poet. Lastly, the poet does not mention the number of the cantos in the Uttarakanda.
Criticizing this view Sivasahaya (our commentator) states that this argument is based on false reasoning. With reference to the number of the cantos in the Uttarakanda, a citation from the said Kanda makes it clear that it comprises one hundred ten cantos: ‘The seer composed six Kandas along with the Uttarakanda consisting of 110 cantos (7 .94 .27)’.
Here, in the expression sottarani, the word ‘so’ comprises three word ‘sa’, ‘o’, and ‘o’. ‘sa’ meaning etymologically ‘procreator of wind’, which referring to the sky, stands for the number ‘zero’. The word ‘o’ signifies Vasudeva that gives the number ‘one’. The word ‘o’, again, referring to the same expresses number ‘one’. In the manner of reckoning the numbers from the left, the word ‘so’ formed by the compound dvanda, produces the figure ‘one hundred ten’.
Thus we may say that Valmiki composed the Ramacarita consisting of seven Kandas among which the Uttarakanda contains one hundred cantos. It should be noted here that the word sa basically means wind. However, it refers to the sky.
Musical recital of Ramayana 1.4.8-13
In this verse, the poet describes the musical recital of the epic. Kusa and Lava sang it. The Kavya was sweet in recitation and musica. Some kavyas are pleasant to recite, while others are melodious to sing. The Ramayana is excellent with regard to both. It is imbued with five sentiments such as Srngara, Vira, Karuna, and Bhayanaka and includes four others such as Raudra, Bibhatsa, Adbhuta, and Santa. It is set in three types of rhythm, viz. druta ‘quick’, madhyama ‘moderate’, and vilambita ‘slow’. Further, it is composed in seven svaras or notes.According to the scriptures, the notes form their own class (jati), and constitute the base of all songs. To Sandilya, they are kharja, nishada, dhaivata, pancama, madhyama, gandhara, and rsabha.
The Ramayana accompanied by tantri and laya. Here tanri denotes a stringed instrument called vina, while laya implies tala, venu, mrdanga and others. They are played rhythmically, i.e. with equal musical time between the beats.Kusa and Lava were experts in music. They were well-versed in the science of music expounded by the gandharvas. According to the lexicon Vaijayanti, gandharvasastra itself is called the science of songs. The singers showed great skill in murcchana and sthana. The same lexicon says that the word murcchana stands for the playing of vina and other instruments. The term sthana refers to the place or the organ of articulation of the svara or note, which has three kinds of intonation, viz. mandra ‘low’, madhyama ‘middle’, and tara ‘high or pitch’. According to Sandilya, Sthana denotes the place located above the chest and below the cheeks through which the breath passes for the articulation of gamut. It is of three kinds, viz. uras ‘chest’, Kantha ‘throat’, and moorhen ‘the top of palate’. Here three notes mentioned above arise. Sandilya further states that it is called merchant when the svaras with complete modulation are articulated in the places mentioned.
Thus the brothers, born of the same mother, were proficient in melodious presentation of the gamut comprising the svaras.They were in human form as if they were gandharvas. They were conversant with dramatic representation. Sharp in conversation with sweet intonation, they looked as if they were just the reflection that arose from the lovely image of Rama. In other words, they resembled the reflection of the handsome image of Rama. To say it in brief, they were identified with Rama. They performed the musical recital of the Ramayana.
In the verse, (1 .4 .10) the reading ‘sthana-murcchana-kovidou’ is acceptable to Bhatta. Kusa and Lava were identified by the auspicious astrological signs they had on their bodies. Endowed with boundless fortune, they commanded the respect of all. With their minds concentrated, they understood the total essence of the Vedas and the scriptures. They attained perfection in musical art. It was considered worthy of relish, like nectar, by the aesthetes. The two sons of the king sang the kavya in the manner they were instructed.
Further, the Ramayana depicting Rama’s life was divine poetry which flowed from the gifted speech of Valmiki, the Adikavi, i.e. the first poet of the world. Righteous in spirit and faithful to dharma, it assigned duties and rites for all. Kusa and Lava recited it with no text in their hands. They performed its recital before the assembly of the wise Vedic seers, the brahmanas in general, the kshatriyas, and vaisyas. The highest ascetics who showed no regard to differences of castes and others also attended the conference.
The Medinikosa mentions ‘ta’ in the sense of ‘nectar’. In this context, it means ‘full of nectar’.
Seers bless Lava and Kusa 1.4.25-26
On the occasion of the recital of the Ramayana the great seers, highly pleased, blessed Kusa and Lava with longevity of life. They felt that the Ramayana was their supreme achievement. The verses 21-25 beginning with anyah krsnajinam to dadus caivam are not found in the text with the commentary by Bhusana. However, they are attested in other editions and fit into the context. The commentator might have overlooked them. The Ramayana is wonderful, since it propagates the substance inaccessible to mind and thought. Further, the spontaneous revelation of madhurya-guna is self-evident. Its thematic structure, by its very nature, is quite distinct from all plots. Being in the form of prabandha, that is, the epic, it is a source of later poetry for poets and aesthetes. It fascinates readers. It ends up with its recital by Kusa and Lava.
Charm of Ramayana 1.4.35-36
The words bhutikaram, mahanubhavam, etc may mean: ‘The boys will speak out my life, which will bring prosperity and inspiration to the listeners’. The maxim says one should not listen to one’s own merit, how is it that Rama listens to the Ramayana, asks Bhatta and then clears his own doubt. The Ramayana after all deals with Sita’s exhaustive life (1 .4 .7).But the word Mahat or exhaustive refers to Ramayana and not to Sita, observes Siromanikara. This epic intends to rid a man of his egotism. Rama was not an egoist like a common man. So the maxim does hold well in his case. The hero of the Ramayana is Rama himself.It is Ramacharita per se.
Kusa and Lava sang the kavya in slow motion with perfect intonation. The treatise on music prescribes two modes of singing, viz. desi and marga. The desi mode is used for singing praakrita songs, while the marga mode is fit for singing Sankrit songs, Equipped with the initial preparatory requisites of the marga mode, they presented the musical Ramayana to the audience.
Seated in the assembly with members around, Rama was deeply absorbed in the musical recital. Here the particle tu denotes eva which implies that Rama was completely oblivious of his duties. Or, the particle conveys the idea that Rama applauded at the end of each verse.